Instagram developing standalone shopping app: Report

San Francisco: Facebook-owned Instagram is reportedly developing a new standalone shopping app “IG Shopping” for the one billion users who actively look for opportunities to expand and follow businesses on the platform.

“Instagram believes it is well positioned to make a major expansion into e-commerce and creating a standalone app would allow the company to provide a dedicated home for expanding opportunities for revenue, according to sources familiar with the development,” The Verge reported on Tuesday.

It could not be learned when the app might launch because the development is still ongoing but it could be cancelled before it is released, the report added.

Instagram began testing a shopping feature in November in 2016 and rolled it out more broadly in March last year that allowed companies to tag posts with individual products, allowing users to shop directly from photos.

The photo-messaging app is currently testing a feature that lets users shop from Instagram stories.

“Shopping on Instagram turns your business into a visual storefront for our community of one billion to explore your best products with a single tap,” the company wrote in a previous blog post.

Instagram declined to comment on whether or not the company is working on the “IG Shopping” app, the report noted.